The LEARNED Family of Charlestown and Chelmsford

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WILLIAM LEARNED (d. 1647) of Charlestown m. Judith Unknown
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SARAH LEARNED m. Thomas Lothrop
ISAAC LEARNED (d. 1657) of Chelmsford m. Mary Stearns
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MARY LEARNED (c. 1647 - aft. 1708) m. Moses Barron

First Generation

WILLIAM LEARNED (d. 1647)

William Learned died on 1 Mar 1646/7. [Ref, p. 43] He married Judith Unknown. [Ref, p. 43]

He was admitted to the Charlestown church on 6 Dec 1632. [Ref, p. 43] He was a freeman on 14 May 1634. [Ref, p. 43] He was appointed Selectman on 13 Apr 1643 and 9 Feb 1644/5. [Ref, p. 43]

Children of William Learned:

  1. Sarah Learned married first Thomas Ewer. She married second Thomas Lothrop.
  2. Isaac Learned was baptised on 25 Feb 1623/4 in Bermondsey. He married Mary Stearns.

Second Generation

SARAH LEARNED (d. 1657)

Parents: William Learned [Ref, p. 38]

Sarah Learned married first Thomas Ewer. [Ref, p. 38] She married second Thomas Lothrop on 11 Dec 1639 in Boston. [Ref, p. 38]

Children of Sarah Learned and Thomas Ewer:

  1. Elizabeth Ewer was baptised on 9 Apr 1641. [Ref, p. 38] She married Thomas Blosson on 18 Jun 1645. [Ref, p. 38] Thomas born about 1620 in Leiden. [Ref, p. 38]

ISAAC LEARNED (d. 1657)

Parents: William Learned [Ref, p. 43]

Isaac Stearns was baptised on 25 Feb 1623/4 in Bermondsey. [Ref, p. 43] He died on 29 Nov or 4 or 8 Dec 1657 in Chelmsford. [Ref] In his records, the Rev. Fiske of Chelmsford says that "Isaack Lernett ... dyed 8. of 10.57. " [Ref] He married Mary Stearns [Ref, p. 43] on 9 Jul 1646 in Woburn. [Ref, pp. 1747-50]

The origin of Chelmsford was a 1652 petition signed by citizens of Concord and Woburn requesting the right to look at land on the other side of the Concord River. On 19 May 1653, 29 men, including Isaac Learned, John Sternes, Edmund and Wiliam Chamberlain, Thomas Adams, William Fletcher, Robert Proctor and Richard Hildreth requested a grant of six square miles. [Ref]

He was one of a committee of seven chosen then to "officiate in Ordering the Public affairs" for the following year at the first town meeting in Chelmsford on 22 (9) 1654. [Ref]

Isaac was the first resident of Chelmsford to join the church there. [Ref]

The usual form of writing such a date occurring between January 1st and March 25th would be 1653–4. In the margin at the top of the first page of births [in Chelmsford] and the figures 1645, and of the first entry the date is missing. The record only informs us that “Isake Larned the sun of Isake Larned was born [].”* It does not necessarily follow, however, that this was an earlier birth than those given, the earliest entries of births not being recorded in the order of dates, but, probably, as they were reported by the families after a town clerk was chosen. One other birth was recorded the same year, “Sarah Larned the dafter of Isake Larned & Mare his wife was borne octo: 28: 53:” [Ref]

Isaac Learned's wife was among the first residents of Chelmsford to join the the church there, joining about 1655. [Ref]

Isaac was chosen to be the first sergeant of the band in Chelmsford on 24 (1) 1655. [Ref]

On 11 (4) 1656, after a public fast, several church members in Chelmsford owned the covenant or professed their willingness to do so. These members included William Fletcher; Brother [Thomas] Adams; Mary, the wife of Thomas Chamberlain; Mary, the wife of Isaac Learned; Rose, the wife of Abraham Parker; Mary, the wife of Edmund Parker. [Ref]

Isaac was allotted seven acres in Great Tadmuck in Westford in 1659. [Ref, p. 7]

Children of Isaac Learned and Mary Stearns:

  1. Mary Learned was born about 1647. She was baptised on 1 Feb 1657 in Chelmsford. She married Moses Barron.
  2. Hannah Learned was born on 24 Aug 1649 in Woburn. [Ref, p. 43] She was baptised (as "Anna") on 1 Feb 1657 in Chelmsford. [Ref] She was living on 31 Dec 1722, when her husband died. [Ref, p. 41] She married Ens. Joseph Farwell on 25 Dec 1666 in Chelmsford. [Ref][Ref, p. 40]
  3. William Learned was born about 1650. He was baptised on 1 Feb 1657 in Chelmsford. [Ref]
  4. Sarah Learned was born on 28 Oct 1653 in Chelmsford. [Ref]
  5. Isaac Learned was born in Chelmsford. was born on 16 Sep or 5 Oct 1655 in Chelmsford. [Ref] Isaac Learned [his son?] is on a list from 25 Nov - 3 Dec 1675 of men in King Philip's War from Watertown. [Ref] Isaac married Sarah Bigelow, the daughter of John Bigelow of Watertown. Isaac of Sherborn is mentioned in his father-in-law's will. [Ref]
  6. Benoni Learned was born on 19 Nov or 4 Dec 1657 in Chelmsford. [Ref] He married first Mary Fanning on 10 Jun 1680 in Sherborn. [Ref] Mary was the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Daniel) Fanning. [Ref, p. 19] She died in childbirth on 14 Oct 1688. [Ref, p. 19] Benoni married second Sarah Wright of Sudbury. [Ref, p. 19]
    some descendants of Benoni Learned, including Leka I, King (Claimant) of Albania

Third Generation

MARY LEARNED (c. 1647 - aft. 1708)

Parents: Isaac Learned and Mary Stearns

Mary Learned was born about 1647. She was baptised on 1 Feb 1657 in Chelmsford. [Ref] She died after 18 Oct 1708, when she witnessed a quitclaim. [Ref] She married Moses Barron. [Ref]

References

Bodge, George, "Soldiers in King Philip's War," New England Historical and Genealogical Register, many volumes.

Editor, "The Ellis Barron Family," The American Genealogist 20, 1943, 135-140.

Farwell, John Dennis, The Farwell Family: A history of Henry Farwell and his wife Olive (Welby) Farwell of Boston, England, and Concord and Chelmsford, Mass., 1605-1927, with twelve generations of their descendants: also lineages of many allied families: records of John Dennis Farwell, Orange, TX, F.H. Farwell and F.B. Farwell, 1929.

Howe, Gilman Bigelow, Genealogy of the Bigelow family of America: From the marriage in 1642 of John Biglo and Mary Warren to the year 1890, unknown, unknown, 1890.

Huntington, E. B., A Genealogical Memoir of the Lo-Lathrop Family in this Country: Embracing the descendants, as far as known, of The Rev. John Lothropp, of Scituate and Barnstable, Mass., and Mark Lothrop, of Salem and Bridgewater, Mass., and the first generation of descendants of other names, Ridgefield, CT, M. Huntington, 1884.

Learned, William Law, The Learned Family, Albany, Joel Munsell's Sons, 1882.

Massachusetts Vital Records to 1850, Online Database: NewEnglandAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2007.

Van Wagenen, Avis Stearns, Genealogy and Memoirs of Isaac Stearns and his Descendants, Syracuse, Courier Print. Co., 1901.

Waters, Wilson, History of Chelmsford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Courier-Citizen Co., Lowell, MA, c. 1917.